TDC PLANS FOR WORLD CUP IN GERMANY
(socawarriorstt.com)21 May 2006
The Tourism Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (TDC) recently announced its promotional plans for maximizing Trinidad and Tobago?s presence in Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The TDC, the executing arm of the Ministry of Tourism for Trinidad and Tobago, has been working on capitalizing upon this important opportunity since December 2005 when the Soca Warriors Tourism Marketing Committee, chaired by Senator the Honourable Howard Chin Lee, the Minister of Tourism, was set up to coordinate tourism marketing programmes related to our participation at the FIFA World Cup 2006.
The Honourable Minister, speaking about the promotional programmes, said "We felt that it was important to have well-thought out and targeted campaign for our promotional efforts in Germany as the FIFA World Cup is the most viewed sports in the world, in the vicinity of 300 billion viewership, that includes most of our source markets. As the smallest nation ever to compete in the FIFA World Cup, we will be there supporting our SOCA WARRIORS Football Team. Small Country...Big Passion"
OUR WEBSITE
On January 19, 2006 the hugely successful website
www.socawarriorstt.com was launched by the Minister of Tourism. The site has received over 10 million hits thus far and is now viewed by more than 130 different countries (from the Caribbean to the traditional metropolis of USA, UK & Canada to Crotia, China and South America) and is one of the most popular sites providing information about Trinidad and Tobago and of our Soca Warriors football players.
As well, since December 2005 the TDC and the Ministry of Tourism have commenced a targeted local, regional and international advertising campaign, which included the placement of ads in various World Cup Guides celebrating Trinidad and Tobago?s participation in the tournament, driving potential visitors to the soca warriors? website. This advertising campaign will continue through June 2006
SOCA CARAVAN.
Plans have now been finalized for Trinidad and Tobago to have a ?SOCA CARAVAN? in Germany this June. The Soca Caravan, essentially a booth highlighting tourism, trade and investment opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago, will be located in the three (3) German cities where the Soca Warriors play ?Dortmund, Nuremberg and Kaiserslautern.
Trinidad and Tobago?s first round game are in Dortmund (June 10th), Nuremberg (June 15th) and Kaiserslautern (June 20th). Each city in Germany, where world cup games are being played, is mandated by FIFA to hold a ?Fanfest? where giant screens showing every game ?live? will act as the focal point for entertainment and activity for fans living in, or visiting, those cities.
Each Fanfest is expected to host between 400,000 ? 600,000 fans during the month long tournament and between 50,000 ? 60,000 persons at any one time. These locations are ideal for the ?SOCA CARAVAN? as there will be large numbers of persons visiting the fan fest prior to, and during, the games. As far as is known very few other countries are planning any kind of similar presence at these events although it is understood that the African countries will have some kind of presence at the Dortmund fan fest.
The Soca Caravan will be at the Dortmund Fan fest for the period June 8th, 9th and 10th. It will then move to the Nuremberg Fan fest and be in place for Tuesday 13th, Wednesday 14th and Thursday the 15th. It will then move to the Kaiserslautern Fan fest and be in place from Saturday 17th through Tuesday the 20th.
This booth will present Trinidad and Tobago in an exciting and interactive way. With adequate space for the conduct of entertainment, the booth will have computers, brochures and personnel providing information about Trinidad and Tobago?s many investment, trade and tourism opportunities and will be staffed by personnel from the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Trade, eTeck and the TDC.
The issue of Trinidad and Tobago?s cultural delegation in Germany for the FIFA World Cup 2006 is being handled separately and is under the sole purview of the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs. This entertainment is designed to stimulate interest in Trinidad and Tobago and to encourage persons attending the entertainment events to visit the ?SOCA CARAVAN? booth to learn more about tourism, trade and investment opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
SPONSORSHIP OF WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS MEDIA CENTRE IN BERLIN AT INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL, FIFA OFFICIAL HQ
HOTEL
Perhaps the most significant aspect of our participation at the FIFA World Cup 2006 is the sponsorship of the main WTA Media Centre in Berlin. Trinidad and Tobago will be the sole destination sponsor of the internet caf頍 and sports bar.
The media centre is being operated by World Travel Awards (WTA), a well established tourism and travel marketing company based in London, England and which specializes in organizing media centers and internet cafes at such events. Tobago Main Ridge Rain Forest has won World?s Leading Ecotourism Destination for 3 year?s in a row .This Internet Caf頡nd Sports Bar will be located in Berlin for the duration of the event and will be located at the FIFA World Head Quarter Hotel of the event, the Intercontinental Hotel, Berlin. It is expected that up to 14,100 media personnel from around the world will be accredited by FIFA to participate in World Cup 2006.
To that end, World Travel Awards has hired the Grand Ballroom at the five (5) star Inter-Continental Hotel Berlin from June 1st until July 10th 2006. The Grand Ball room will be equipped with a 24 foot by 15 foot big screen and six smaller 12 feet by six feet screens. All 64 games will be shown on the big screen in the ballroom with full hospitality for the travel industry, media and VIPS. A 60 second TV advertisement profiling Trinidad and Tobago will be played on all screens in the ballroom and sports bar no less than four (4) times, immediately before the game begins, immediately at the end of the first half, immediately before the second half begins, and immediately after the game ends.Â
In addition there will be an internet caf頡nd sports bar operating 24 hours a day seven days a week between June 1st and July 10th. This media centre and sports bar will be equipped with full wi-fi capability up to 750 square meters and will have a minimum of 100 computers and laptops, for use by the world media and VIPS.
The home page on all computers, laptop and fixed screen in this internet caf頡nd connecting with the WTA servers will be of Trinidad and Tobago. As well WTA will produce and provide a multi lingual web site in 12 languages to be hosted on the computers used by the media centre. This web site will include a minimum of 60 minutes of streamed video material as well as virtual tours of both Trinidad and Tobago. The information on these web sites will highlight tourism, trade and investment opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
The sports bar will not only be showing world cup football but also Formula One racing, Wimbledon Tennis, Open Golf and other similar major international sporting events taking place during that period so it will be well attended by journalists throughout the month long tournament.
ANGOSTURA PROMOTIONAL EVENTS
The TDC will also work with Angostura which intends to aggressively promote its products in Germany at the World Cup. The TDC will work with them in offering Trinidad and Tobago themed promotional material and to assist them in hosting events starring Destra and Atlantik, who will appear in Dortmund on the evening of June 10th and in Munich on Saturday June 17th.
TT culture ready for World Cup
(Newsday)Sunday, May 21 2006
Trinidad and Tobago will be on the world stage during the World Cup Football finals in Germany between the period June 10 to 20 when the Soca Warriors play their three preliminary games.
The Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism have made elaborate preparations to showcase Trinidad and Tobago.
In culture, (spareheaded by Minister Joan Yuille Williams) the
British BBC has finalised arrangements to host a steelband and a calypsonian on their programme from 6 am on June 15 when TT plays England in the second game. The BBC programme will run until lunchtime and will be shown to millions across the globe.
This was confirmed yesterday by Ashton Ford, Information and Culture Attache at the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in London. Ford pointed out that the BBC will also have a crew travelling with the TT supporters from London and will stay with them throughout the three-week period.
Ford added that
Sky Sports television will also air a programme on the day of the England encounter in London at a hotel which would be carried live and will feature TT culture with commentary by top London broadcasters.
He said
TT has already obtained permission for a street parade from the train station in Nuremberg to the stadium where the Soca Warriors clash with England in Germany. Ford said Carnival costumes will be worn by nationals who are being flown from TT for the activity. In other words, it would be Carnival in Germany. This will undoubtedly boost TT’s image internationally, Ford added.
Apart from BBC and Sky Sports several other media houses have contacted the High Commission in London to cover TT outside of the actual game. Countries including Sweden, Wales, Brazil, Australia and Ghana are all keen to highlight TT.
Ford said several requests have also been made for the High Commission to arrange interviews with senior representatives from TT namely Ministers of Government to talk about TT’s tourism, culture, trade and economy.
He said Maximus Dan was already proving to be a big hit since it is featured on FIFA’s game programme presented by the well known play station.
“TT definitely stands to benefit tremendously from this international event,” Ford concluded.
